Hans

Over the weekend I was at a party for some friends at work. The husband's father was there, a very elderly old Syrian gentleman with a tilted shoulder and a number of facial scars. It turned out he spoke excellent English and was quiet excited to find out I actually knew what a T-34 was! His story was very interesting. From a Syrian leftist family he was swept up in the USSRs program of teaching third worlders engineering degrees and communism at the same time. He arrived for college in 1940. He started an intensive Russian language program and moved on to the first year of engineering school. Well the invasion came - but school kept on. Syria was a French colony, now under Vichy control and not a place for a leftist Arab with revolution on his mind. As the war got closer, he and his classmates (third worlders all) were conscripted to dig anti-tank ditches - back breaking work in sub-zero temperatures. By luck he knew how to drive and was drafted off the work line (yep he volunteered when asked if anyone knew how to drive). He had a pretty cushy job driving a pre-war Ford around with a Russian general. Sometime during the winter, they were caught in a shelling and the car destroyed, the general killed and he wounded in the legs. He was stuck in a barn/hospital where two weeks later. Bandaged up and barely able to walk Russian police(?) entered the barn and stated that anyone who could leave the barn for immediate service WOULDN'T be shot - he got up but was upset that the other didn't get shot after all. He ended up in the woods lost with a large group of other 'recruits', he lost the tips of fingers and toes to frost bite. Finally they were gathered up, frozen and taken to a training area where, with about two minutes warning were placed into a crew and presented with a tank - which they preceded to drive around a lot. He stated with pride that he was one of the few new drivers NOT to rip out the transmission. After a week of training he was sent into combat somewhere to the south east of Moscow. His crew had the difficulty that all of them were non-native Russian speakers - so it got tough at times. After several severe shelling, shooting etc (he never could tell what was going on). His tank was hit and they bailed out. They crawled under MG fire for hours and finally got back where strangely they were sent to an infantry unit and for six months did nothing but guard a building which no one could figure out why it was important. Fortunately at that time he learned how to shoot a rifle etc. Sometime in the summer of 42 a draft of 'driver mechanics' was called for and he was sent to another unit where he was again placed into a T-34 which he drove for some three months - often in fights - in one a round entered the turret, killed the gunner, exited the turret and knocked out their partner tank. They bailed out but later that night re-entered and drove off with the tank. The next day they were attacked again and took a series of hits the last caused the tank to 'brew up' giving him bad burns on his legs. A few minutes later a bullet hit him in the shoulder. It took him nearly a year to regain any use of his shoulder and he spent the rest of the war as a mechanic/clerk in Odessa. In the closing days of the war he went forward with a tank recovery unit and ended up somewhere near Austria. At this point he'd had quiet enough of Russia, the Russians and the war. He deserted and says he walked from the Austrian border to Paris. And what does a French/Russian/English/Arabic speaking Syrian do in Paris? Work as a waiter of course. He spent some 40 years at the "Tour de la Argent", 5 star restaurant making it to head waiter. He has never returned to Syria Comments on a T-34 Cramped, dirty and noisy - incredibly cold during winter and horribly hot during the summer. He never saw a moving Axis soldier or tank (I suspect from the coke bottles he was wearing that he's very near sighted) but did see/hear German air strikes and artillery all the time. Comments on rations dog food, boring and not Halal at all Comments on Russian officers unprintable Comments on commissars dog urine Comments on those Russians he worked with Fine to scum During his time in Uniform he was never ever paid. The Gentlemen’s name was Eisa Adel Muhammed Hairib

His underwear - their is a small but active group of CM groupies that sell the personal effects of the great ones on ebay. Saudi battle - I remember dimly from a military briefing back around 1983 that the Saudis had some units in Gaza??? that were overwhelmed by the Israelis. More details I cannot provided. From my experience elsewhere I believe some of the miniature wargaming clubs might have info on that - they tend (at least in the West) to put up local scenarios ----Hoping we have some Israeli CM players out there. Thanks to 'Bauer' who has already send some great material by email on the battles in Al Quds - with maps and OOBs - translated from Hebrew - much much appreciated.

I'm gathering info for scenarios for CMAK. One of the areas I'm looking at are the Arab Israeli wars which uses a lot of the equipment of that time. My request. I work in an Arab country and cannot get to any Israeli site. Would any brave soul like to look for hebrew language material (maps and oobs in particular on the 48 war of independence and 56 battles)? In particular I'm looking for a dimly remembered fight in 48? between a few Saudis infantry companies and Israeli militias Thanks - and yes you will be covered with praise and mentioned in the scenario! If you are female I will furnish you with a pair of Madmatts used underwear. (a great gift item and as I understand it a fertility enhancer of the 1st degree)

hindsight is marvolous isn't it. My Father said he was VERY uncomfortable about the possible outcome of the war until November 1942 and the Invasion of NA and Guadacanal. After that he was confident the Allies would win.

Another point, perhaps the point at which the Axis lost the war was when Hitler decided to invade the USSR. If he and Italy had concentrated on the 'med' strategy. Our world would have become a four power one. Japan in Asia, the USSR, Europe under Germany and the UK and North America combined for mutual defense - although I would expect a war between the Axis and Russia would have been hard to avoid.

High water mark...December 1941, they were stopped at the gates of Moscow and the US entered the war. At that point, unless the allies morale had suffered a grevious blow - the game was up. The production capacity and manpower capabilities of the USSR and USA could not be overcome.

river crossings, bridging sites etc, as the QB doesn't do those they are probably in demand

Thanks The 'all combined' is the magic phrase!

I managed to get away and to the museum for about 45 minutes, not bad. Saw a lot of interesting things on WWI Alpine fighting. Good photo of a 37mm fighting position in summer 1944 armed with the dreaded muzzle loaded bomb. Got a good history of the Hungarian Army (in English) at the Book store. Help --- how do you get Hungarian cavalry to come up?

Does anyone know what the magic combination of months and years plus region that allow selection of Hungarian cavalry in the unit editor? Thanks

I believe that 'bogged' also covers failure of the track/wheel system, ie mechanical error - this is often happens if you are moving FAST over terrain. I'm sure a grog will be along to explain it even more. The next question you might ask is, is that realistic? Yes I once broke a track on a M577 going SLOW a flat very dry asphalt road! You can tell the AI is cheating when a big thumb comes out of the sky, squishes your tank and you hear a rumbling laugh (Madmatt) in the distance....

Great answer with art too !

One of the time consuming tasks I sometimes have to deal with is reducing (or adding) troops levels so I can obtain a certain scenario size. To obtain Small or Medium, as far as I can tell the only way to do this is to make changes to units, save then go to start game to see the size of the scenario - is there another way to see this info instead of shifting back and forth? If not I recommend that data be shown in the unit window.

In link below the author states they were 'absorbed" into the German Panzer Divsions??? comments The recently-designed 7TP "czolg lekki", or light tank, the first in the world to be designed with a diesel engine, proved to be superior to German tanks of the same class (the PzKpfw I and II) inflicting serious damage to the German forces, limited only by the fact that they were not used in concentrated groups. They were absorbed by the Germans into their own Panzer divisions at the end of the campaign. http://www.kasprzyk.demon.co.uk/www/WW2.html

http://www.feldgrau.com/glossary.html

Hey I can live without the voices but it would be nice to have the actual victory locations marked with the right flags and remotely correct uniforms show up!

For you SCW fans, another one is up at the depot VIVA CRISTO REY! a small battle in Viscaya Another one, very small tomorrow or so concerning a Republican counter-attack at Merida.

on its way, fairly simple question on naming criterias

do you Go forth willingly? Shoot yourself in the foot? Lose the keys and pray? Join the enemy? http://www.barranque.com/guerracivil/tanqueplanes.jpg

Hi Working on a scenario set in Latvia (BG of Nordland Division in the Madona sector, (22/9/1944) and I need the help on a Latvian speaker for a few key words Anyone out there? Thanks

I will take that answer to be the original (and largest component) forms the name of the unit? ie, for a unit designated to guard a convoy, defend a crossroads etc consisting of 2 platoons of infantry, an armoured car section and the regimental gun section would be called after the 'home' of the infantry platoon. ie 'detachment of 3 company' or '3 company detachment'? In English this would be called a 'detachment' what would the German equivalent be?

Yes that another good idea, of course the units then suffer from "split squad" syndrome! Thanks for your input

I've come across a historical event that I'm planning to scenarioize. In it both sides have motorcycle units (platoons). Would the grogs and veterans here consider jeeps and kubelwagen carrying sharpshooters, LMGs and tank hunter teams to be appropriate motorcycle replacements? TIA Hans

I understand that the Germans numbered their companies 1-12, etc. If they had mixed sub-units* moving about, the US might have name them force 'able', 'baker' etc. Would the Germans have commonly called them by numbers, letters? Or as they did historically with the commanders name like kampgruppes? *Platoon and company (-) sized Thanks

I've only had it a few days, initial impression is so so, but unfortunately the interface is a bit hard to figure out - not as many detailed maps as I would have liked. However I think I've only scratched the surface. It only costs the price of one good dinner-so eat cheap for one night and try it.